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wisconsin magazine of history autumn 1951 deputies the state arranged to furnish a more potent form of gas — not merely tear gas this time but tear gas plus a gas that was an emetic and cathartic guaranteed to spoil the day for any striker both sides had learned a lot from the first milk pool strike and were busy putting the learning to use the pickets took to cars instead of camping at crossroads they swooped down on trucks when no guardsmen were present dumped the loads and vanished near mukwonago i saw a new wrinkle when pickets tossed an old harrow in front of a line of trucks to stop ihem by puncturing the tires but the authorities were even more forehanded the lead truck had a snowplow which brushed the harrow off the road the deputies wore gas masks when they exploded their triple action bombs and the pickets wore leather gloves to toss the bombs right back before they exploded the milk pool was getting some unexpected help from jobless city sympathizers who transferred their factory strike techniques to the countryside east of waukesha i saw a man lie down on the tracks to block an interurban electric freight train carrying milk alworth county farmer-deputies an athletic deputy sheriff rolled him off the tracks with a flying tackle but the militant picket was no farmer he was an oil truck driver who just happened to be carried away at the moment by that spirit of deviltry and opposition which lurks in all of us at the big mukwonago receiving plant where the resplendent guardsmen were leap ing in and out of trucks for the benefit of the newsreel cameras i saw a lone farmer sneak through the mass of them and dump one can of milk he was a farmer all right but it turned out that he had only one cow and she was dry the battle of durham hill in the south east corner of waukesha county was another memorable occasion the sheriff had de termined to make a show of force and oblig ingly set the time to suit the convenience of newspaper reporters and photographers 1 had difficulty convincing my office by phone that the guardsmen this time had not only guns but bayonets the office was not really convinced until the photographer appeared with pictures some hours later the farmer pickets were equally hard to convince after a barrage of gas the seventy-five guardsmen pushed the farmers over the hill at bayonet point and the unbelieving pickets kept look ing around to see if they really were being prodded with cold steel the guardsmen seemed equally nervous and looked as if they would have been glad to drop their guns and run too some pickets took refuge in a farm house and one was brought out by a guards man who held a pistol to his head is this america the farm wife stormed at nobody in particular and since none of us at the moment were quite sure she got no answer by the time i had finished telephoning my story to the paper the guardsmen were gone and the pickets were all back in the road stopping cars other scenes of violence were being en acted elsewhere in the state notably around shawano and near appleton and blood from noses was flowing almost as freely as milk both sides were beginning to play for keeps when singler called off the strike may 19 it had cost the state 100,000 for 2,000 troops and incidentals and the counties 70,000 for 4,000 special deputies not to mention the loss 34

This issue includes articles on Wisconsin industrialist J.I. Case, the competition for railroads, the 1900 gubernatorial election of Robert La Follette, and a sketch of linguist and ethnologist Jeremiah Curtain.

wisconsin magazine of history autumn 1951 deputies the state arranged to furnish a more potent form of gas — not merely tear gas this time but tear gas plus a gas that was an emetic and cathartic guaranteed to spoil the day for any striker both sides had learned a lot from the first milk pool strike and were busy putting the learning to use the pickets took to cars instead of camping at crossroads they swooped down on trucks when no guardsmen were present dumped the loads and vanished near mukwonago i saw a new wrinkle when pickets tossed an old harrow in front of a line of trucks to stop ihem by puncturing the tires but the authorities were even more forehanded the lead truck had a snowplow which brushed the harrow off the road the deputies wore gas masks when they exploded their triple action bombs and the pickets wore leather gloves to toss the bombs right back before they exploded the milk pool was getting some unexpected help from jobless city sympathizers who transferred their factory strike techniques to the countryside east of waukesha i saw a man lie down on the tracks to block an interurban electric freight train carrying milk alworth county farmer-deputies an athletic deputy sheriff rolled him off the tracks with a flying tackle but the militant picket was no farmer he was an oil truck driver who just happened to be carried away at the moment by that spirit of deviltry and opposition which lurks in all of us at the big mukwonago receiving plant where the resplendent guardsmen were leap ing in and out of trucks for the benefit of the newsreel cameras i saw a lone farmer sneak through the mass of them and dump one can of milk he was a farmer all right but it turned out that he had only one cow and she was dry the battle of durham hill in the south east corner of waukesha county was another memorable occasion the sheriff had de termined to make a show of force and oblig ingly set the time to suit the convenience of newspaper reporters and photographers 1 had difficulty convincing my office by phone that the guardsmen this time had not only guns but bayonets the office was not really convinced until the photographer appeared with pictures some hours later the farmer pickets were equally hard to convince after a barrage of gas the seventy-five guardsmen pushed the farmers over the hill at bayonet point and the unbelieving pickets kept look ing around to see if they really were being prodded with cold steel the guardsmen seemed equally nervous and looked as if they would have been glad to drop their guns and run too some pickets took refuge in a farm house and one was brought out by a guards man who held a pistol to his head is this america the farm wife stormed at nobody in particular and since none of us at the moment were quite sure she got no answer by the time i had finished telephoning my story to the paper the guardsmen were gone and the pickets were all back in the road stopping cars other scenes of violence were being en acted elsewhere in the state notably around shawano and near appleton and blood from noses was flowing almost as freely as milk both sides were beginning to play for keeps when singler called off the strike may 19 it had cost the state 100,000 for 2,000 troops and incidentals and the counties 70,000 for 4,000 special deputies not to mention the loss 34